Helsingkrona Tower, Lund, Sweden

25/04/2016

Chris Hodson

This new copper tower in Lund, Sweden, designed by FOJAB arkitekter for the student organisation ‘Helsingkrona nation’, creates a landmark at the heart of its parkland setting and offers an exemplar for modern student housing.

The 13-storey tower is built in a park on Lund University’s Faculty of Engineering (LTH) campus. Created in the 1960s, the LTH Park is characterised by copper-roofed, brick ‘slab’ buildings with a horizontal emphasis. Architect Mattias Hedberg Ek’s response was to create a vertical, freestanding element, as he explained: “The answer was to do something completely different – a tower that does not interrupt the park space.

“Although contrasting in form with its neighbours, the tower’s copper facades relate to the existing slabs’ copper roofs and details. The building’s verticality is accentuated by the modelling and varying heights of its volumes and the arrangement of copper cassettes, articulated in two shades of pre-oxidisation. We chose copper because of its durability and naturally changing beauty. Finally, we needed a lightweight material to suit the irregularity of the building form.”

ALL CORNER APARTMENTS

The project programme sought compact but flexible and high quality apartments. They are all based on the same concept – known as ‘Kompislägenheter’ in Swedish – where two ‘buddies’ share a living room, kitchen and bathroom but each has a private bedroom. With six flats on each floor, the plan form ensures a 60-degree view for all, making every one feel like a corner apartment overlooking the park and the nearby lake.

It was important not only to provide housing but also communal spaces for the students, both to study and to socialise. On the top floor, a hall for dinners, lectures and other events enjoys spectacular views over Lund, Malmö and Öresund, with access to two of the rooftop terraces. The ground floor houses other public functions and the entrance area, which interacts with the busy traffic of students and teachers in the LTH campus area.

A NEW TYPE OF LIVING

The new tower is one of three projects nominated for the Swedish Association of Architectures’ Architecture Award 2015. The judges commented that the design has: “put extra resources into common spaces, choice of materials and maintaining a high standard in execution, as well as having developed a new type of living together as friends.”